You know, Neil and I have lived in our current home since October 2001, and that feels like a good long while now. I think when we move out (which we hope/need to this year!) we will really miss this place, and it will feel weird to be somewhere different, for a while. It feels like home here, deep and ingrained. Should that be "engrained"? Hmmm. Anyway, the long time that I've lived in this home doesn't quite match the amount of time I have been "home" at Diaryland.

I started keeping a diary at Diaryland in January 2001, and then started a pre-pregnancy journal here too in January 2003. Due to a new baby and the old diary not feeling like home any more, I started this here diary in March 2005, and have been writing here ever since. Diaryland used to be the first place ever to keep an online diary, I think! That's a pretty cool achievement. But lately there don't seem to be many people here. I have no idea how many active users there are at any one time at Blogger or Wordpress or Typepad, for example, but I am thinking it's probably a BUNCH more than here. Sometimes I look at the users online now thingy, at the members area, and it's not a quiet time of day but there only seem to be a dozen or so listed. I DO love it here, but it's so quiet and I worry that it will eventually go under and maybe there won't be enough notice (or any notice?) and alllll my years of precious memories and records will be lost. I can't bear to think of that happening, and I don't want to shell out for gold membership for the privilege of being able to back up my diary to my hard drive!

Soooo, it's time to move on, I think. I am both sad and excited to announce it. Sad to leave the home I have been so happy in for so long. And excited excited excited to go to a buzzing community where I already feel at home because I've been reading so many blogs for so long now!

This will (sadly!!) be my last diary entry here. I have moved to Blogger! :) To make it easy, I chose the name "arthursmummy" for my new blog there, so my new blog url is http://arthursmummy.blogspot.com, okay?

I opened it on December 12th, and then new I couldn't be there without taking EVERYTHING with me. I couldn't leave stuff behind here. I had to move house entirely! So, it has taken me since December 12th till this very evening, to COPY AND PASTE all 269 diary entries from this diary to my blogspot version of this diary!!!! Yaaaargh!! That has been soooooo tedious at times! I have just done bits here and there, but I have also spent 5 or 6 solid evenings (3/4 hours straight!) just transferring entry after entry after entry, and making new labels (you get to have labels!), and so on. I backdated every entry so that it is recorded at the same date and time as it was here. I have just literally moved house, and taken every single belonging with me, and now I'm settling into my new home.

The layout is temporary. I put the current photo from this diary at the top, to help you guys transition, hehe! ;) I just picked a random blog background from a free website, and there we have it. But I'm getting a bloggy make-over very soon, which I'm excited about! So, don't pay attention to the fact that I can't seem to fit the photo at the top into the border that surrounds it. It is just temporary!

Please follow me over to my new neighbourhood!! I don't want to leave any friends behind! I really hope everyone will keep reading me there and add me to their Blogger blogs if they have blogger already, or else just bookmark me and keep in touch. Comments there are built in to Blogger at the end of each post, and my email is on my profile (I think?). Anyway, it will get better for links and so on once my bloggy make-over is done!

I've loved it here! I hope I'll love it just as much at Blogger. Please do click the link below and come on over to read the post I just made there about 20 minutes ago!